TV Shows

Thank goodness for TV on demand for letting us be able to go back and watch certain shows. We hardly ever can be ready to watch television at 8:00 when most of the shows start. We are normally putting the girls to bed and trying to get our dinner finished. Luckily Ben and I mostly like he same shows, so we sit down and have our weekly shows to pick from. Plus, a lot of our shows come on the same days and same times, and I am normallly in bed around 9:30, since I get up at 4:30 most mornings.

Dallas, Monday night on TNT at 9:00

 

The Following, Monday night on Fox at 9:00

I don't like to admit this one, but once you start you can't stop watching. Teem Mom 2 on MTV on Monday nights at 10:00.

Probably my FAVORITE!!! It's new this year to tv, Nashville, Wednesday night on ABC at 10:00.

Probably one of my least favorite, Grey's Anatomy, Thursday nights on ABC at 9:00.

We have gotten behind on Once Upon a Time, Sunday night on ABC at 8:00, but it's still one of our shows.

Revenge, Sunday night on ABC at 9:00.

Saved the best for last, The Walking Dead, Sunday night on AMC at 9:00.



Trader Joe's

Columbia has long been missing some of the national retailers found in Greenville and Charleston, but that trend is starting to change. Columbia recently got a Mast General store (which I have been in once, nothing special), Whole Food (okay that have cheap wings, but again nothing special), and now Trader Joe’s. Columbia had the genus idea to put this new store on what’s getting to be one of the busiest streets in Columbia. Great! What’s even better is its right near our house.

So when anything new comes to Columbia, everyone talks about it and everyone feels the need to go there as soon as possible. Course, this time I gave in! Ben watched the girls while I went “grocery shopping” for the week. Fun times, but not have the girls would make it easier. I’m driving down Forest Drive, late Sunday afternoon, and I see police officers directing traffic outside the parking lots to the glorious Trader Joes. REALLY? A police escort for a “neighborhood” grocery store. This place better be good. Unlike most of the crowd, I didn’t mind walking, so I parked a few stores down.

I walked in and was immediately disappointed. It was tiny and almost felt a little “hippyish” I don’t even know if that’s a word. I did buy some jalapenos and cilantro hummus, apple juice, eggs, cheese tortellini, and tomato basil spaghetti sauce. We made the tortellini and sauce last night, and it actually turned out really good. I loved the sauce.

When everyone found out that we were getting a Trader Joe’s all you heard was, that’s where you can get “two-buck chuck” basically $2.00 wine. Well of course I go in there looking for a wine label that says, “two-buck chuck”. Well evidently it’s not called that, it’s called Charles Shaw and it’s $2.99. We already had wine at the house, so I didn’t even buy any, plus I’m not sure I was to drink $2.99 wine.

All and all, it was a neat place. Course I ended up at Kroger afterwards to complete my shopping, because I was not going to buy chicken for $10.00. I’ll take the chicken pumped with hormones for $3.00. I’ll go back when the new wears off. Now all we need is a Costco and Ikea and Columbia would be set! And probably an Apple Store even though I don’t have an Apple phone or computer.

Let the Wedding Festivities Begin!!

This weekend was super cold and nasty outside. It rained and rained and then decided to rain some more. Did I mention that it rained and was freezing outside? What month is it??? March right? I signed up for a race Saturday morning. I didn’t really want to race, but it was for Columbia High School track/cross country team and plus I know the principal, so I thought what the heck. I got up and it wasn’t raining at all, of course as soon as I got to the race is starting pouring.

My watch decided it didn’t like the rain either and decided not to work, so I had to race watch less. We started and all the Columbia High School students took off like someone was chasing them, and then about 400 meters later, they were all walking. Ha! I jumped in front and another guy stayed right beside me. The course was great until the last mile which was really hilly. He said our mile splits were 5:36, 6:04, and then last mile was 6:11, but the course was long, about 3.2 rather than 3.1. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s probably about 20-30 seconds. Anyway I got first place, $100.00, and couldn’t feel my arms or legs because it was so cold.

The rain finally decided to stop around 4:00 or so, just in time for Perry and Amanda’s engagement party!!! The party was at the hunt club, or as ME would call it “Christopher’s House”. We had a great time, it was good to see everyone and meet Amanda’s family and friends. Course we didn’t get to talk too much because we were trying to keep up with two crazy children the whole time.



Sunday morning, since we are soooo nosey we went to Perry and Amanda’s to watch them open all their gifts. I just love wedding season!!! Course the girls enjoyed playing with all the boxes and trash.

Sunday afternoon we went to the Sportsman Classic, which is basically redneck heaven! They had a bunch of cool stuff, lots of animals, and more camouflage than you have ever seen. Since Ben works for DNR we got in for free, so we decided to go. 

Finally the rained came to a stop, course that wasn’t until Sunday evening. We finally got a chance to dye our Easter eggs. I just love these naked babies!!!

St. Patty's Day Weekend

This weekend I had been gearing up for the St. Patty’s Day 10k. Not only did I want to have a good race and time, but some cash money. I knew the girl who beat me last year was going to be doing the race and has also beaten me in other races. Also, I figured a random fast girl would show up since the cash prize was $500.00.

I took last week really easy with a track workout throw in the middle. I wanted to be fresh and ready for my competition. The girls and I picked up my packet on Thursday and I could already feel my stomach get upset with butterflies. This race is always so competitive and mentally I needed a good race. Not to mention there were 700 people signed up the 10k and over 2,000 for the 5k.

Saturday morning came around and as I was warming up, I saw the girl that beat my last year, Ashley. She is super nice, so we said our hello’s and the have a good race node. At this point I was VERY ready to get the race over with.

We lined up and off we went. One girl, Kimberly, who I have never seen before took off like a bat out of hell and left me in the dust. I continued and soon Ashley was right next to me. We ran together for the first three miles, which I have to admit was really nice having someone to pace me. Around mile three, I had visions of last year when she passed me right at the end of the race. The stubborn redheadness finally came out and off I went. I wanted to put a few seconds on her, because I knew she was going to try to catch me at the end. We passed Ben and the girls, and I didn’t even smile, wave, nothing…I was in the zone. Finally, we reached Devine street, which was pretty much a mile down the street, but the bad thing is you can see the finish line the whole time. I wasn't even looking at my time, all I could think about was getting $250 and not letting Ashley catch me again. All I could do was run as fast as I could and hope to god she didn’t come sprinting past me.

I came in second place, 12 seconds before Ashley, and got a new PR of 38:18. We again did the good job hand shake and went our separate ways. I didn’t even see the girl who won; she was about a minute infront of us, oh well. I was just so happy to have a good race and time, plus $250 always helps!

(ready to get this over with and praying at the same time)

(I was with the super fast girl for about 20 seconds)

After the race I had to quickly cooldown and run another mile or so to get to where Ben and the girls were in the parade. In Columbia, we have a huge St. Patty’s Day parade. Normally we go and watch, but this year we were in the parade. We were on the “Fireball” Firetruck.

Somebody had to many fireballs!

That afternoon I took the girls back down to the St. Patty’s Day Festival. My parents gave us an awesome parking passes and passes to get in. They had a whole kid’s area with rides and food. The girl’s road several ride and eat green ice cream.

It was a very long day, but hopefully the girls had fun. Sunday, actual St. Patrick's Day we played outside all day and ran errands. I cooked them green eggs and pancakes to celebrate!



Birthday Weekend

My birthday celebration started Thursday night. We had supper club at Elizabeth’s house. She made a wonderful shrimp and grits recipe and had birthday cake ice cream for dessert.

Friday, I did have to go to work, but that’s okay because I had a three year old come with me. ME and I went to the circus, but she came to work with me before hand. I have a small office, so nobody really cared. Around 9:30 we walked down to the Colonial Center to see the circus. Of course we had to buy a light up toy for ME and for Grayson. The circus was just like I remember back when we used to go. They had the motorcycles, horses, elephants, trapeze, lions and tigers, and all the clowns. ME and I had a great time. What made if more special was it was just me and her.

After the circus, we met up with Ben and went out to eat for my birthday lunch…of course the Mexican restaurant. When I got back to work, I had another surprise waiting for me.

Friday night we went to my parent’s house for dinner. We had wings, at my request, and of course a giant cookie cake. My parents gave me a super cute dress from the new store in Treholm Plaza, a necklace and earrings to go with it, lots of cleaning materials, and some extra money to buy anything else I needed.

Ben did extremely well this year; I don’t know what I did to deserve everything he got me. He gave me some awesome racing shoes, and a necklace and ring from Uncle Bruce’s store. The pictures don’t do either one of them justice.

 My second mom's gave me some money, wine, and some gift cards to our favorite place, Outback!

Saturday morning was the Columbia Marathon. Strictly Running got together and formed an all girls team. The legs were 1^st: Shannon (5.1 miles), 2^nd: Amy (8 miles), 3^rd: Theresa (5.1 miles), and then me (8 miles) which equaled out to be 26.2 miles. We won for the girls relay team and came in second behind the boys team we were aiming for. Ben and the girls came out to watch and chased me all over the course.

 

Waiting for the start!

 Shannon lining up to start us off!

 Shannon passing off to Amy.

Theresa passing off to me.

The girls playing on the State House grounds as we waited for the awards, that never happened.

 The girls playing on the State House grounds as we waited for the awards, that never happened



 Theresa and I and two of the girls we run with in the morning. They did the whole marathon!!

 We finally wore the girls out!

Saturday afternoon we headed to North Augusta to spend time with Ben's parents. They watched the girls for us so we could go to dinner. We went to Takosushi, and they gave us a gift card which made dinner even better. We got a bottle of wine, several things of sushi, edamame, another glass of wine, and more sushi. The restaurant was really good and it was so nice to be able to eat in peace. Sunday morning we ate a wonderful breakfast and I opened more presents. They got me some really cute clothes, an awesome can opener, a soap thing for the sink, and $100 gift card to Belk. Which of course I left shortly after that to go spend it.

(I bought lots of clothes, course I couldn't get a really good picture)

Sunday night we went back over to my parent’s house for Sunday night dinner to come to find out, my mom had broken her foot. Six years from my birthday, she broke her leg, this year on my birthday she broke her other foot. Crazy, I know!

Besides my mom breaking her foot, I had a great birthday. I have such a wonderful family and group of friends. I couldn’t of asked for a better birthday.